Exercises for dislocated knee rehab

Knee dislocation may take weeks to heal and thus, inhibit your usual movements. Since you might be wearing a knee gear or using crutches to support your knee movements during the healing time, you might experience weakened knee after a kneecap dislocation.

The role of exercises to your dislocated knee

Exercises, which is done in moderation following a dislocated knee healing give a lot of benefits to the dislocated kneecap. Instead of standing by itself, your kneecap is connected to the quadriceps muscles that support your movements. Thus, exercises done after a knee dislocation is fully healed also brings essential advantages to the muscles. In general, the roles of exercises following a dislocated knee healing include:

Relaxing the muscles and ligament around the knee groove. This is important, as dislocated knee healing may cause stiffness to the knee area, which may inhibit free movements and knee bending you used to do before the kneecap is dislocated.

Strengthening the thighs, which support your knee movements. Your thighs also support your body weight and thus, may lose its ability to do this once the knee is dislocated. Proper exercises will exercise the thighs to support required knee movements sufficiently.

Before exercising

Exercises have a big impact on your dislocated knee rehab if done properly and moderately. There are in fact, various kinds of exercises, but not all of those are suitable for dislocated knee rehab, as some of these exercises may instead aggravate the injury site and trigger another dislocation. Before doing any exercises for dislocated patella rehab, it is important to consider some things as:

Perform all exercises for knee rehab when you are able to move your knee joint without triggering too much painful sensation. Avoid any exercises, even the lightest ones if you are still suffering from excruciating pain around the shifted kneecap area.

Increase the exercises gradually. Do not start any knee rehab with heavy exercises involving the knee, as this may cause another knee dislocation.

Choose the exercises that are easier to do. The simpler the exercises are, the more likely you are to follow your health plan on rehabbing the dislocated knee. This is important, as consistency is essential for proper and faster healing.

Suitable exercises for dislocated knee rehab

There are some kinds of exercises best for dislocated knee rehab. If you have met some criteria above, start perform these exercises to promote your dislocated knee rehab gradually.

Leg extension

This exercise has a significant role in improving your quadriceps muscle strength after a dislocated knee injury. Only do this leg extension exercise once you can contract and straighten the injured leg without any significant pain. To do a leg extension, sit at the edge of a table, so that the injured leg hangs freely toward the ground. Contract your muscles to straighten the leg carefully. Give an 8-second pause at the top of the movement before lowering your leg. Repeat this movement up to 10 times to restore your muscle strength.

Cycling

A stationery bike at the gym gives you a lot of benefits in rehabbing a dislocated knee. The main role of this exercise lies on its ability to restore range of motions you might lost when your kneecap started to dislocate. As soon as you are able to move your joint without any pain, you can begin cycling exercise in moderation. Begin cycling for five minutes and repeat this three times a day. Gradually increase the length of time until you are able to spend approximately thirty minutes cycling.

Hamstrings

This exercise will help stretch your quadriceps muscles as well as reduce stiffness on the dislocated knee. To help you do this hamstring, you are going to need a belt or flexible exercise string to support your foot. Lie on back and loop this belt over the ball of your foot. Afterwards, slowly pull on the belt to raise it. Keep the other foot on the ground while raising the affected one. Hold this position for 15 seconds and do it alternately between the feet. Repeat the exercise three times a day until your dislocated kneecap gets more relaxed.

Cautions

Although exercises have a range of benefits on your dislocated knee rehab, they may also bring future dislocation, which can be more severe than the previous one. Thus, some cautions related to these exercises should be paid attention to:

Do not start doing any exercises if you are still suffering from pain. Even slight pain should keep you from doing these exercises as they may instead aggravate the injury.

Stop the exercises you are doing immediately as soon as you are feeling any pain while doing it. Forcing yourself performing the exercises while feeling some pain on site may bring negative effects to the injury.

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